The Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters has begun accepting submissions for its Wisconsin People & Ideas/Wisconsin Book Festival 2010 Short Story and Poetry Contests--catchy title, no?--and all you talented scribes dwelling within this very fine state need to get your entries in tiptop shape and send 'em in pronto!
As has become standard policy on this here bloggity blog, we shall post no contest, competition, artistic wrestling match, what have you unless there's some kind of a payout--or it's a supercalifragilistic idea that only geniuses could've hatched and ya really can't refuse--and these two contests do indeed meet our criteria.
So, what are the monetary prizes? They are these:
• Short Story Contest winners will receive $500 (first place), $250 (second place), and $100 (third place).
• Poetry Contest winners will receive $500 (first place, the John Lehman Poetry Award), $100 (second place), and $50 (third place).
Not bad, eh? Not bad at all.
Besides the dough, all winners will have their respective work published in the Wisconsin People & Ideas quarterly magazine and have a chance to read at next year's Wisconsin Book Festival and other venues.
First-place winners will receive a one-week stay at Edenfred creative arts residency in the Madison Highlands--ooh, fancy!--where they can wander around the lavish 2.5 acres, writing pads and pencils tucked in their little mitts, pretending to be Percy and Mary Shelley or Lord Byron and John Keats, depending on the gender mix. Also, the first-prize poet will get a three-hour CD recording/editing session.
Now, I don't want all you poets to feel bad--course, if that's just the emotional juice ya need to finish off that sonnet then, please, go right ahead--but, according to the website, "The first-prize short story contest winner also receives a private manuscript review by a literary agent of national note." Why isn't the poet champion afforded this opportunity? Well, as is my duty, I asked about that and it seems there's no real satisfactory answer. However, Jason A. Smith, Director of Communications and Editor of Wisconsin People & Ideas, did offer up some extremely high praise for the poetry judges, all of whom qualify as fairly heavy hitters in the Wisco word world:
"... Linda Aschbrenner, the publisher of Marsh River Editions, is the poetry contest [lead] judge... She's is a central figure in the Wisconsin poetry scene. Plus, Lester Smith is a judge and he's the president of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets. The other judges, Tom [Montag] and B.J. [Best], are both well-published poets, too. It's pretty much a who's who of the Wisconsin poetry scene as far as the contest is concerned. It's a great group and I'm more than happy to have them participate. Giddy, even."
See? Giddy! Jason is giddy, which gives you license to feel giddy, too. Okay? We good? Good.
All right, so go here for all the rules, whereases and whatfors. Deadline is December 15, 2009. Break a pen, kids!
(Thanks, Jason!)
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